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[Sian]

Woman! Thats fabuloso news! having a little party here at my puter for ya!

I hope things turn out well for your friend, I'll keep her in my thoughts and prayers!

[Kadee]

Hooray Ladyhawke, great news, I am so happy the results are negative, YAY

[Ladyhawke04008]

bdhsnake, Sian, and Kadee~ Thanks so much!!!!
I'm definately breathing MUCH easier now! \/
Thanks so much for the kind words! :mrgreen:
All the people on this site are just so awesome!
And thanks Sian for sending the extra prayers to my friend. [-o<
A person can never have too many of those! :wink:

[Rapunzel's Wish]

Ladyhawke,
Fantastic news! Thank you so much for starting this thread, and keeping it going. I'm sure you have helped more people than you even realize!

[Ladyhawke04008]

Thanks!  

[Ladyhawke04008]

This story was on CBS news tonight. This is from their website.

"Hormones Can Raise Breast Cancer Risk
New Government Research Finds Menopause Hormones Can Raise The Risk Of Breast Cancer.

Research on two continents signaled more bad news for menopause hormones, offering the strongest evidence yet that they can raise the risk of breast cancer and are tied to a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer.

New U.S. government numbers showed that breast cancer rates leveled off in 2004 after plunging in 2003 _ the year after millions of women stopped taking hormones because a big study tied them to higher heart, stroke and breast cancer risks.
Experts said the leveling off shows that the 2003 drop in the cancer rate was real and not a fluke.

From 2001 to 2004, breast cancer rates fell almost 9 percent _ a dramatic decline, researchers report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
The trend was even stronger for the most common form of the disease _ tumors whose growth is fueled by hormones.
Those rates fell almost 15 percent among women ages 50 to 69, the group most likely to have been on hormone pills.

At the same time, a study of nearly 1 million women in the United Kingdom showed that those who took hormones after menopause were 20 percent more likely to develop ovarian cancer or die from it than women who never took the pills.
That study was published online by the London-based journal The Lancet.

For consumers, the new research doesn't change the advice to use the lowest dose for the shortest time possible for hot flashes and other menopause symptoms that can't otherwise be controlled.

For cautious scientists, the new breast cancer numbers were more evidence of the hormone-breast cancer link.

"The story has gotten stronger," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, a biostatistician at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who led the research.

Some were skeptical several months ago when Ravdin and National Cancer Institute researchers first reported the 2003 drop in the breast cancer rate.
The new numbers, which add 2004, prove this was no fluke, said Dr. Julie Gralow, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology and cancer expert at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"Because it didn't bump back up again," it supports the idea that the rate has stabilized at a new lower level, said Gralow, who had no role in the study.

Brenda Edwards, one of the journal authors who is a National Cancer Institute researcher, agreed. "Now we have a statistically significant decline" over three years and clear proof of a trend, she said.

Although some recent analyses suggest heart risks from menopause hormones are not as great as had been believed for younger, newly menopausal women, the statistics out this week add to the worries about cancer.

After rising steadily through the 1990s, the breast cancer rate dipped from 2001 to 2002, from 138 cases to 135 cases per 100,000 women. After the federal Women's Health Initiative study reported in July 2002 on the health risks of hormones, use of the pills plunged.

So did the breast cancer rate the following year _ to 126 cases per 100,000 women. It was the steepest fall since the government started keeping records in the 1970s.

The drop was seen in all of the cancer statistics registries reviewed in the study, and no other cancer rate changed as dramatically _ strong signs that hormones were playing a role, specialists said.

The 2004 rate held steady at about 126 cases per 100,000.

Stopping hormone use may have stopped some cancers from growing and caused them to disappear, scientists speculate.
Or it may have just slowed them down so that they won't appear until years later, said Ahmedin Jemal, an American Cancer Society researcher. Only time will tell which is true, he said.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which makes top-selling hormone pills Prempro and Premarin, criticized the study as overly speculative.
Company spokesman Dr. Joseph Camardo said hormone prescriptions continued to fall in 2004 but breast cancer rates did not decline proportionatel.

Ravdin said the company's criticism does not invalidate the cancer trends.

Breast cancer is the most common major cancer in American women and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women.
About 180,000 new cases are expected to occur in the United States this year and more than 1 million worldwide.

Ovarian cancer is far less common. The British study found that even with the 20 percent greater risk from hormones, the actual risk was very low: 2.6 of every 1,000 hormone users developed ovarian cancer over five years compared to 2.2 in 1,000 non-hormone users.

Still, that means about 1,000 extra ovarian cancer deaths from 1991 through 2005, said study leaders at the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit in Oxford.

Hormone use has declined already, and the new report should cause it to fall further, Dr. Steven Narod of the University of Toronto wrote in an editorial accompanying the study in The Lancet.

"We hope that the number of women dying of ovarian cancer will decline as well," he wrote.

Camardo, Wyeth's spokesman, said hormone labels already warn about an elevated risk of ovarian cancer.  "

[Ladyhawke04008]

"More women getting double mastectomies."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071022/ap_on_he_me/double_mastectomies

[C-Note]

At 32, my mother had to have a hysterectomy....I don't think I had spelled that right  ;)She had a deteriorating uterus unfortunately. Soon after that, she had menopause. She is taking hormones to this day. It may of agreed with her, but I am taking this information you have displayed very serious Lady Hawke.  Down the road, hormones may not work for me like my mother, but the startling numbers given here in this empirical data is proof enough why I won't take hormones, even when my Grandmother is a breast cancer survior too like you. All my prayers, and God Bless Lady.....

[Janice]

I think the best thing that ever happened to me was to meet Ladyhawke (Sue) on this site and that we now have a life long friendship.  God bless you my friend, and I pray that your life will be long and healthy.  You will always be an inspiration to me.  Janice. 

[Ladyhawke04008]

Hi C-Note and thanks !
I am very glad to hear that at least you will question as to whether or not it's in your best interest for your health to take hormone pills down the road.

In the late 90's and early 2000 is when hormone pills seemed just the way to handle menopause.
I'm glad that at least there is more data out there for women to look at and decide whether it really is the best way to go.

Had I known then, what I know now I NEVER would have taken them.

C-Note~ You and your family are also in my prayers and I am glad to hear that they are also doing so well after hearing about their health problems. Take care~ Sue

[Ladyhawke04008]

I think the best thing that ever happened to me was to meet Ladyhawke (Sue) on this site and that we now have a life long friendship.  God bless you my friend, and I pray that your life will be long and healthy.  You will always be an inspiration to me.  Janice. 

Janice~ Hey lady! That goes both ways! 
I feel the EXACT way about your friendship as well!

This has been not only a wonderful place to look at pictures, but to also meet some great people from all around the world.
I can't imagine what life would be like without the friendships I've made with people here!
It's been also great to hear the many different points of view on so many subjects.
It can certainly be an eye opener at times.

[Janice]

Hey, whatever happened to Rapunzel's Wish?  So many posters gone!

[Ladyhawke04008]

One of the ladies from here sent me this info last year and I really thought it should be passed on. 

"Subject: How to prepare for a mammogram.
 
 Many women are afraid of their first mammogram, but there is no need  to worry.
By taking a few minutes each day for a week preceding the exam and doing the following exercises, you will be totally prepared for the test and best of all, you can do these simple exercises right in and around your home.
 
 EXERCISE ONE:
 
 Open your refrigerator door and insert one breast in door.
Shut the  door as hard as possible and lean on the door for good measure.
 
 Hold that position for five seconds.
Repeat again in case the first time wasn't effective enough.
 
 EXERCISE TWO:
 
 Visit your garage at 3AM when the temperature of the cement floor is  just perfect.
Take off all your clothes and lie comfortably on the floor with one breast wedged under the rear tire of the car.
Ask a  friend to slowly back the car up until your breast is sufficiently  flattened and chilled.
Turn over and repeat with the other breast.
 
 EXERCISE THREE:
 
 Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist.
Invite a  stranger into the room.
Press the bookends against one of your breasts.
 Smash the bookends together as hard as you can.
Set up an appointment with the stranger to meet next year and do it again.
 
 YOU ARE TOTALLY PREPARED!
 
 AND, just a thought for all the women out there........
 
 A Friend Is Like A Good Bra...
 Hard to Find
 Supportive
 Comfortable
 Always Lifts You Up
 Never Lets You Down or Leaves You Hanging And Is Always Close To Your  Heart!!!"